Six killed in attack on Afghan intelligence agency

Taliban suicide bombs hit an office of the Afghan intelligence agency in an eastern city on Saturday, killing six people. Seven militants were also killed during several hours of heavy fighting with Afghan security forces at the Jalalabad headquarters of the National Directorate of Security (NDS). Ahmad Zeya Abdulzai, a spokesman for the governor of eastern Nangarhar province, said four NDS agents and two civilians were killed when a truck and a smaller car, both loaded with explosives, were driven into the compound and a gunfight broke out between Afghan forces and the insurgents.

There is no job, no security, no life. We don’t care if the Taliban come back and take over the whole country. We want a peaceful life.

Kunduz shopkeeper Sayed Malek

On Saturday, the insurgents struck in the western province of Farah, stopping a truck carrying workers to a construction site near the Iranian border and killing 11 of them. Authorities were trying to find out why the workers were targeted. The attacks form part of in an upsurge of violence as foreign combat troops prepare to withdraw from the country. Afghan forces have struggled to fight off large numbers of insurgent fighters in provinces to the east, north and south of Kabul.

Middle East Afghanistan